Beauty standards are a palpable topic for exploring, particularly when they’re about women in image-obsessed Hollywood. This is the setting for Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, a satirical and grotesque body horror that serves up its own version of warped feminism.
The film focuses on Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), an ageing TV fitness instructor who was revered in her heyday but finds herself unceremoniously fired by her sleazy TV producer boss, on account of her fading appearance. Sparkle lives alone in a luxury condo, with a large front room with a view of the rolling hills below, and little to do with her unemployed life except watch TV.
It is from here that Sparkle discovers the titular Substance, something injected into the body that promises to change the user to the best version of themselves; an idealised, physically perfect specimen. The Substance comes with strict rules which require 7 days in the new body and 7 days in the existing, ageing body, feeding the Other Self with supplements provided with the product.
Sparkle’s ideal Other Self is played by Margaret Qualley, who wakes in her new body further to a visceral, intense transformation sequence that ought to humble David Cronenberg and John Carpenter. She takes on the role of “Sue” and proceeds to take on Sparkle’s previous role as TV fitness instructor, in sexualised sequences that exploit and explore her body. These beg the question as to what Fargeat was intending to achieve; her directorial vision is more male gaze than many male directors in her place would dare to tread.
The film’s main conflict is between the two leads; the same person leading different lives. The Substances’ rules are there to be broken, and the film explores this to its absolute limits. This is horror in the most vile sense, designed to invoke disgust more than abject fear. It also critiques the image-loving world in which it plays, but doesn’t really fight it. It’s an angry film but one that’s ultimately compliant.
2024, Coralie Fargeat
7.0
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